In 1991, in response to the NIH Research Agenda on Women's Health, the University of Michigan established The Michigan Initiative for Women's Health (MIWH) to stimulate multidisciplinary research and education on women's health. Although, in many areas of health, existing methodology can be easily adapted to the study of women's health experience, in others new paradigms, new methodologies or new measurement tools are necessary before substantive gains can be made in our understanding of disease etiology or in the development of appropriate health interventions and national health policies. Particularly in the early stages of development, researchers often work in comparative isolation and have few forums which facilitate substantive discussion of strengths and weaknesses of emerging strategies, definition of research priorities, and early development of research standards. In order to provide such an opportunity, the MIWH will host an invited workshop on "Methods and Measures: Emerging Strategies for Women's Health Research" on July 14-18, 1997. Leading University, national and international scientists in a few targeted areas including reproductive health policy, the interface between reproduction, chronic disease, and the environment, and the recruitment and retention of diverse populations of women will be invited. The goals of the workshop are 1) to provide a forum for in-depth and critical scientific discussions; 2) to facilitate development of emerging methodologies; and 3) to establish research standards and priorities. Four half-day sessions will address urinary incontinence, innovative methods for ensuring that national health policy efforts address women's health needs, new paradigms for the female reproductive system and their implications for women's health, and methods for assessing environmental impact on the female reproductive system. Two half-day sessions will address issues relevant to a range of health endpoints including methods for integrating qualitative and quantitative research approaches to elucidate the context of and cultural differences in response to standardized questions and on ascertainment and recruitment strategies for specific subpopulations of women.